Monday, August 5, 2002

X-MEN SEQUEL UPDATES

Production isn't halfway finished and the film won't be in theaters until May 2, but X-Men 2 made a major splash over the weekend at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Director Bryan Singer returned to the convention and brought along a trailer of sorts to show a crowd of more than 4,300. Despite having no visual effects, the footage wowed the fans attending a 20th Century Fox presentation that also included James Cameron and Daredevil guests Ben Affleck and Mark Steven Johnson.

The Continuum has complete coverage of the weekend activities, broken down into the following stories:

Batman's first appearance in Static Shock, "Big Leagues," (pictured above) opened the second season and drew the show's strongest ratings.

Dwayne McDuffie, Static co-creator and writer who is now a story editor for the Justice League animated series, said it was not difficult getting the OK to team Static and Justice League.

"Not at all," McDuffie told The Continuum. "The network came to us. They wanted to do it. Originally, they wanted to do the Teen Titans, but then they came back and asked if we wanted to do Justice League, and it was like, 'Hell, yeah!'"

Ernie Altbacker wrote the first part and McDuffie the second part of the episode, which is called "A League of Their Own."

"Brainiac is the villain," Altbacker told The Continuum. "The entire Watchtower is turned into a gigantic Brainiac head. He takes over their whole computer system."

In other Static Shock news:

* Billy Dee Williams will provide a guest-voice of an African hero in an episode set in Africa.

* Richie, Virgil's best friend, will become a super-hero in his own right, under the name Gear. Cowan described him as a "super MacGyver."

* A new female hero, called Shebang, will appear in three episodes.

* John Semper, who was story editor/producer of Fox Kids' Spider-Man animated series, has joined the show as a story editor.

* Milestone's Michael Davis said he is working on getting Static Shock merchandise available such as action figures. "I can guarantee you at this time next year, you'll have something with Static on it," he said.

* The third season will be 13 episodes.

* Look for more on Static Shock soon here in The Continuum.

IMAGE COMICS DEVELOPS SUPER-HERO LINE

GIVE'EM A CLICK

Image Comics will launch a super-hero line in January with four new titles joining ongoing series Savage Dragon and Noble Causes.

The new books will be Venture by Jay Faerber and Jamal Igle, Dominion by Keith Giffen, The Clockmaker by Jim Krueger and Matt Smith and Invincible by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker.

Jim Valentino's Shadowhawk will return at a to-be-announced date.

"We're trying to fill a void," Image's Eric Stephenson told The Continuum. "We'd like to have one super-hero universe, sort of like in Image's early days."

Stephenson also provided The Continuum a rundown on upcoming projects:

WITCHBLADE TV UPDATE

"Veritas," a new episode of Witchblade, will air on TNT on Monday night.

Here's how the network describes the episode:

"While investigating an execution-style murder, Sara (Yancy Butler) is pulled into a web of deception and conspiracy that threatens her life and the life of her friend Gabriel (John Hensley). Renegade covert operatives murder one of their own (Dean Hagopian) when he refuses to turn over a film reel containing incriminating evidence that he intends to use to blow the whistle on their cabal. After Sara meets with her FBI agent friend Dick Arness (Patrick Garrow) to seek help with the case, Arness is mysteriously killed, and the FBI believes Sara is to blame. With Gabriel's help, Sara locates the hidden film and becomes a target of the covert assassins."

The episode will air at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. (ET).

In other Witchblade news:

* Top Cow's David Wohl told The Continuum that filming on the second season has wrapped. He said he hasn't heard any confirmation about a third season yet.

BRIEFLY

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale will team on a Hulk: Gray mini-series early next year.

Ray Park, who is not returning as Toad in X-Men 2, said during a Comic-Con panel for Ballistic: Eck vs. Sever that his next film will return him to the comic-book world. "My next role after this will be Iron Fist, playing Danny Rand," Park said. "I get to be a good guy for once."

Upcoming Smallville episodes on The WB include "Craving" on Tuesday, Aug. 13; "Hug" on Monday, Aug. 19 and "Kinetic" on Tuesday, Aug 20.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images from the last two days of Comic-Con.